Will The Real Christine Gregoire Please Stand Up?

Last week, when the Save Our Sonics folks showed up en masse to Christine Gregoire's campaign kickoff event, Gregoire was pretty fiery about keeping the Sonics when her campaign rally was invaded by the Save Our Sonics crowd.

During that rally, she spiritedly exclaimed: "It's our team and they're going to stay in Washington!"

But then came her empty letter to the NBA.

And now, after NBA owners have voted to let the team move, she issues a statement that is practically meaningless. No fire, no promise of action. Nothing. After saying she's disappointed in what the NBA did, and naming the various lawsuits on the table, there's this non sequitur.

"I want to thank Sonics fans for their support for the team through the years." Um...you're welcome? What?

Gregoire supporters will tell you that she wanted to help the Sonics but that the legislature wouldn't agree.

Sorry--that doesn't wash. Both houses of the Washington state legislature are in Democratic hands. Gregoire is a Democrat, and the leader of the state party. She could've gotten that support if she wanted it badly enough--if not on the merits of the thing itself, at least by pointing out that she and her Democratic colleagues are gift-wrapping an election issue for her Republican opponent.

Dino Rossi's election blueprint is to claim that the state under Gregoire has a "culture of failure"--and what better example of failure than losing the Sonics.